Undergraduate performance assessment

Abstract

Introduction: Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE) is considered a useful method of assessing clinical skills besides Multiple Choice Questions (MCQs) and clinical evaluations. Aim: To explore the acceptance of medical students to this assessment tool in medical education and to determine whether the assessment results of MCQs and faculty clinical evaluations agree with the respective OSCE scores of 4th year medical students (Med IV). Methods: performance of a total of 223 Med IV students distributed on academic years 2006-2007, 2007-2008, and 2008-2009 in OSCE, MCQs and faculty evaluations were compared. Out of the total 93 students were asked randomly to fill a questionnaire about their attitudes and acceptance of this tool. The OSCE was conducted every two months for two different groups of medical students who had completed their family medicine rotation, while faculty evaluation based on observation by assessors was submitted on a monthly basis upon the completion of the rotation. The final exam for the family medicine clerkship was performed at the end of the 4thacademic year, and it consisted of MCQsResults: Students highly commended the OSCE as a tool of evaluation by faculty members as it provides a true measure of required clinical skills and communication skills compared to MCQs and faculty evaluation. The study showed a significant positive correlation between the OSCE scores and the clinical evaluation scores while there was no association between the OSCE score and the final exam scores.Conclusion: Student showed high appreciation and acceptance of this type of clinical skills testing. Despite the fact that OSCEs make them more stressed than other modalities of assessment, it remained the preferred one.